Stone as Wall Paper: The Evolution of Stone as a Sheathing Material in Twentieth-Century Amman » CSBE al Asad Lina As ad Aghlab al Attili Ala Gammoh Fady Haddadin Thaer Haj Ahmad project coordinator Hani Imam Hussaini Kawthar Jeddah Shadi Jibreel Miriam Jubeh Hania Maraqa Ola Musa Rula Najati May Shaer Hana Sharaf Ali al Shibly Janset Shwash Shadi al Yousef and Samer Younis This is the first phase of a project that aims at documenting the historical use of stone as a sheathing material for walls in Jordan This first phase documents twentieth century Amman which provides clearly defined locational and chronological parameters Although Amman has historical roots dating to the earliest pre historic times the city was deserted by the fourteenth century to only be resettled in the late nineteenth century However almost none of the structures of modern Amman predate the twentieth century Therefore this project covers a range that includes Amman s earliest modern structures as well as its most recent ones In dealing with stone as a sheathing material the following database primarily aims at providing both textual and visual information on the dressing of stone and the patterns created by it Also we have provided additional information such as the locations of the structures being documented their dates and their architects A few explanatory notes should be given about such additional information The locations include both the area in which the structure is located and the street address for it Such information helps one locate the structure in relation to the city and also allows one to visit it However street addresses are not widely used in Amman and there were a few cases for which we were not able to locate street numbers for the structures being documented In such cases we only provided the street names Concerning dates which allow us to tie the samples together chronologically we have provided the decades to which these buildings belong since such structures usually have been built over a period of a few years In many cases we were able to obtain specific dates for these structures However in some cases such specific dates were not available since the original residents or owners could not be located or the documents that might provide such dates were not available to us In such cases we were able to estimate the dates for the buildings through a number of means including the location of the building in the city since different parts of the city were developed at certain periods We also depended on examining the architectural features of the structures which usually give sufficient information about the period to which they belong In general we believe that the results we have obtained for the dates are reliable but when in doubt concerning the dates we have indicated that they are approximate in nature Concerning architects we have provided the names of the architects whenever they were available to us In this context it should be kept in mind that the earlier structures in Amman were not designed by architects but by the builders

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Legislation and the Built Environment in the Arab-Muslim City » CSBE Ph D dissertation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1980 and his book The Arab Muslim City Tradition Continuity and Change in the Physical Environment 1996 2 Al Hathloul explores the evolution of the Arab Muslim city through an analysis of pre modern legal documents that include records from 14th century Tunis and 16th century Medina The study is partly an examination of the evolution of traditions It emphasizes a number of prepositions The first is that traditions grow out of a community s need for continuity and regulations that govern social life Another is that traditions are an extremely important source of knowledge for they express the cumulative knowledge for a given society and are the informational basis that enables a society to move forward In spite of the importance of tradition it should not have absolute reign in determining how society conducts itself Tradition must be receptive to criticism adaptable and capable of development and change Tradition can be explained through studying the history of legislation In many instances the study of such a history is more informative than the study of traditional narrative history Legal history generally presents a more candid and accurate representation of the past than narrative history which represents a subjective view of given historical events Al Hathloul also emphasizes that in the Arab Muslim world continuity with many of our traditions has been lost and with it a considerable knowledge base that could have been developed upon in the modern era Legal Records Al Hathloul s work concentrated on exploring and explaining how traditions relating to the making of the Arab Islamic city came into being This he achieved through the study of legal records which come in two forms The first consists of manuals of hisbah written between the 11th and 14th centuries specifying the obligations of the muhtasib a municipal officer responsible for public morals and regulation of markets and accounts of actual cases from Tunis related by Ibn al Rami in the first half of the 14th century and from the court records of Medina since the 16th century addressing practical issues observed in the city The second type of record is that of theoretical issues which are documented in the opinions discussions and theories of the fuqaha Muslim jurists from the first three centuries of Islam 7th through 10th century He further explained that his study focused on the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence 3 mainly because the written materials relating to this school were readily available and easily accessible to him and because most of the inhabitants of both cities in his study Tunis and Medina were followers of the Maliki school This presented the opportunity to study the applications of a theoretical knowledge base in the practical arena through actual events Al Hathloul presented issues to be studied through both the intellectual materials and the practical examples at hand These mainly concentrated on the right of way the conception of space and the concern for privacy Right

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EMERGING TRENDS IN URBANISM: THE BEIRUT POST-WAR EXPERIENCE » CSBE Colonial Heritage 3 3 Traditional Planning the Level of Neighborhood Planning 3 4 Emergency Strategies 3 5 New Approaches to Preservation 4 Modern Planning 4 1 The Ecochard Plan 4 2 The 1954 Plan 4 3 The 1964 Plan 5 War Period Planning 6 Post Period Planning 6 1 Beirut s 1990 2000 Planning Trends 7 Questions and Answers 8 Endnotes 9 List of Figures Introduction Robert Saliba 1 is an urban planner who has been involved in the practice and teaching of urban planning for the past twenty years especially within the context of Beirut Consequently he has had the opportunity to observe firsthand the changes that are taking place in the models and practices of urban planning affecting Beirut He therefore devoted this presentation to the emerging trends in urban planning that have appeared in Beirut particularly in the period between 1990 and 2000 the decade that followed the 1975 1990 Lebanese civil war This essay deals with the issues that Saliba discussed in his presentation as well as the questions and answers that followed it Establishing a Framework Saliba began by illustrating the framework that he will use to explain these emerging trends in urbanism He emphasized the importance of using a criterion for classification that would allow one to more easily elucidate the complex process of planning This includes the issue of specificity which demands a differentiation between two types of trends The first is general trends which consist of imported models that can be found in many countries within the Middle East For example participatory planning which is a popular recent trend in planning is a general planning trend that is being practiced in different governance systems in the region such as Jordan Lebanon and Syria Of course such a trend is being modified according

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Ugly Concrete Boxes are Almost Alright » CSBE that show a masterful and dynamic manipulation of color light and texture Moreover it is a project in which architect Sahel Hiyari makes a powerful architectural statement This is an iconoclastic design that avoids historical architectural traditions or the fashionable vocabularies of contemporary world architecture as points of departure Instead Hiyari turns for inspiration to popular contemporary building practices predominant in a developing world context such as that of Jordan Consequently Hiyari examines buildings characterized by shoddy construction materials and techniques which primarily incorporate poorly finished concrete surfaces with rough edges and rusting steel elements Such buildings understandably have been the subject of scathing attacks by architectural critics everywhere They are a harsh manifestation of the abrupt advent of the powerful forces of modernization to the developing world These structures have replaced the age old architectural vernacular traditions that sensitively incorporated the economic social technological and environmental circumstances of their societies and the result has been a built world that is out of balance Consequently cheap uninspired and shoddily built concrete boxes today overwhelm most cities of the developing world Hiyari s approach is that these ubiquitous structures will not go away for some time However much of Jordan s architectural community has attempted to ignore them and in the search for sources of inspiration many architects have turned back to a romantic past or have run forward to the various trendy vocabularies of post industrial architecture More often than not the results have been simplified and superficial borrowings from such prototypes that fail to understand the complex ideas processes and forces that have shaped the architectural masterpieces of the past and present Hiyari on the other hand has decided to accept the present realities and constraints of our built environment and to work with them He examines the crude

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Variations on a Theme » CSBE Hussaini s reaction to this situation has been to engage himself in a full scale exploration of various issues relating to stone including craftsmanship textures scale and weathering In this we see a sense of continuity with the work of a small group of Jordanian architects who devoted considerable energies to experimenting with stone such as Jafar Tukan and the late Atallah Douani Another contrast between al Hiyari s work and consultation space and Hussaini s two houses is the issue of craftsmanship Al Hiyari accepts the shoddy construction practices characteristic of most of the exposed concrete buildings of Amman and incorporates such practices in his work in an innovative manner that transforms their limitations and creates powerful aesthetic architectural statements In contrast Hussaini devotes tremendous efforts to securing the highest possible levels of craftsmanship from the existing Jordanian building industry with its people technologies and materials This he achieves not only through insisting on high quality work but also through investing in the development of highly detailed construction drawings for that work In the case of stone he works with a traditional construction material and unrelentingly demands of those working with it to come up with high levels of precision and discipline in craftsmanship Addressing Contexts Hussaini s emphasis on stone is part of a contextual approach he espouses to the making of architecture These two houses are very much the result of a process of interaction with different contexts that include the urban social and technological Each house presented Hussaini with a different set of contexts and the results express active and sensitive levels of interaction with the requirements of each of these contexts The urban context The Mushahwar house is located on a corner plot and provides an axial termination to one of the streets that makes up the corner arrangement figure 1 Consequently the location of the house demands presence and this is what Hussaini gave it He presents the street that visually leads to the house with a tower like structure which functions as the primary defining form of the house figure 2 The use of the tower is reminiscent of the late nineteenth century Queen Anne houses of the Victorian era where towers often are incorporated within the formal composition of the house These Victorian era towers serve to further articulate the form of the building but also function as a location from which one would be able to view the surroundings Hussaini also provides his tower with a series of other functions In addition to providing a termination point for a visual axis and providing a form that serves as the major three dimensional architectural component of the house the tower aims at concealing the rooftop water tanks Water tanks are integral but unsightly components of the rooftops of houses in Jordan where municipal water commonly is only pumped one to two days a week and therefore needs to be stored during the days when water is not pumped These rooftop elements clutter

Grafting the Ammani Landscape » CSBE 2 Description 3 Project Data 4 List of Figures Introduction The first two issues of Exploring the Edge presented a search for a genius loci within the context of Jordan In neither case was this search expressed through the too common emphasis of connecting to conceptions of a past heritage which often ends up caricaturing and de contextualizing the architectural heritage of a previous era Instead architects Sahel al Hiyari and Hani Imam Hussaini examined current construction materials and practices predominant in Jordan They worked with what may be identified as a contemporary conventional semi industrial vernacular but redefined and developed it into a higher level of architectural expression Al Hiyari worked with roughly and often poorly finished exposed concrete construction and Hussaini worked with stone sheathing Both are ubiquitous within the context of Jordan with the former generally associated with lower budget construction and the latter connected to higher budget construction Khalid Nahhas the founder and senior architect of Symbiosis Designs has taken a very different approach The forms of his buildings attempt to connect to the surrounding topography and their colors establish links to the earth tone hues of the relatively dry landscapes of this part of the world His architecture however does not try to make even the slightest of nods to the forms materials or techniques prevalent in the buildings of Amman whether past or present Instead he consciously emphasizes the introduction of new forms and techniques As with al Hiyari and Hussaini Nahhas is a product of two worlds He spent his childhood in Dubai and moved to Canada when he was eleven He studied architecture at the University of British Columbia and before that also completed a bachelor s degree in geographic and economic planning at the University of Victoria He worked as an

Guidelines » CSBE some simple safeguards are met When reusing graywater a number of issues need to be taken into consideration The system should be as simple and easy to use and maintain as possible The system also should minimize risks to human health either by providing for adequate treatment of the graywater or by minimizing contact between the graywater and humans and animals The system also should minimize the risks to plants which may arise from some of the constituents of the graywater particularly chemicals from soaps or detergents such as boron bleach and sodium which could adversely affect plant health The following are basic preliminary guidelines for the development of graywater irrigation schemes Sources of Graywater 1 In order to reuse graywater from a particular building a dual plumbing system is required to separate the usable graywater from the more contaminated blackwater The outputs from toilets bidets and kitchen sinks are not suitable for use in irrigation without proper treatment and should be taken to the foul sewer or the septic tank Only wastewater from cleaner sources such as baths showers hand basins and floor drains should be included in the graywater system 2 Care should be taken to limit the release of inappropriate substances into the graywater system Heavily soiled or bloodstained clothes diapers animals etc should not be washed in sinks draining to the graywater system Chemicals such as bleach cleaning agents paints etc should not be disposed of into the graywater system nor should any substance that may cause blockage or detrimentally affect the plants to be irrigated with the graywater Detergents like those used in washing machines have a detrimental affect on some plants because of their contents of sodium compounds Consequently if laundry wash water is to be used for irrigation a degree of treatment or

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A Graywater Reuse Study in Southern Arizona and the Water Conservation Demonstration Garden in San Diego, California » CSBE sustainability of water resources One effective approach to water conservation is the reuse of graywater Graywater is all wastewater generated in the household excluding toilet wastes Its sources in homes include sinks showers tubs and washing machines Graywater recycling is not limited to large scale projects for individual households can effectively save and reuse their graywater for irrigating landscapes and flushing toilets 1 Another approach is the incorporation of principles and practices of water conserving landscapes 2 The presentation of Val Little 3 dealt with these two approaches to water conservation Concerning graywater reuse Little discussed a residential graywater research study that the Water Conservation Alliance of Southern Arizona Water CASA 4 undertook in the greater Tucson 5 area between the years 1998 and 2000 Little also discussed demonstration gardens as tools for educating the public in water conservation particularly in the creation of water conserving landscapes More specifically she presented the example of the Water Conservation Demonstration Garden in San Diego California Residential Graywater Reuse Study The residential graywater reuse study that Water CASA carried out was supported by the Arizona Department of Water Resources the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality The study included two parts each of which examined one aspect of graywater use in the greater Tucson area The first part was a survey that looked into the number of households that used some portion of the graywater they generated and examined their graywater resources The second part examined health concerns relating to the use of graywater and the potential of graywater for transmitting disease Little emphasized that the subject of safety relating to graywater reuse is one that needed to be cleared up as it constituted a major obstacle in the way of getting graywater reuse legalized Consequently

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